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Madoff client Picower reaped billions

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 13:21 CDT

New York investor Bernie Madoff's net worth may place him a distant second among those who benefited from his fraud scheme, court records show.

Madoff's net worth is estimated at about $825 million, ProPublica reported Wednesday. But, a complaint filed by Irving Picard, the trustee in the Madoff Ponzi fraud case, says businessman Jeffry Picower and his family withdrew $5.1 billion from Madoff accounts between December 1995 and December 2008.

The quarterly withdrawals from Picower-controlled accounts peaked in 2003 and indicate Picower was among the elite clients whose accounts with Madoff generated astronomical returns.

Between 1996 and 2007, Picower accounts generated returns of more than 100 percent on 14 separate occasions, even though the largest annual surge in the Dow Jones industrial average or the S&P 500 was 31 percent during the same period, ProPublica reported.

The average annual gain for the S&P in the same years was under 9 percent.

Among the mysteries of the case, however, is where the money ended up.

While extremely wealthy, the Picower's visible assets include a home in Palm Beach, Fla., worth about $28 million and a home in Connecticut worth about $4.5 million. Picower, described as a tax shelter expert, appears to have few other tangible assets, ProPublica reported.

Source: United Press International

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